How Employee Social Media Use Can Lead to EPLI Claims

As of 2018, Facebook has a whopping 2.19 billion monthly users, according to Statista. While other social media giants may not boast as many members, they’re still quite close. With these kind of numbers, it’s safe to assume that your employees are probably on Facebook. And while your employees are allowed to have a social life outside of the workplace, it’s important to keep in mind that social media use can lead to employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) claims. In this modern day and age, it’s more important than ever to keep track of what you could be liable for. There’s so many exposures in the digital world that one needs to know about. If you need employee liability insurance for your employees, make sure you’re aware of the ways social media use can impact your company, courtesy of RHSB.

Harassment

Sure, one can have a life outside of work. But if it involves harassing fellow coworkers, business partners or customers, then a company can be found liable if they are negligent on the topic. As an employer, never turn a blind eye to any harassment that you find out about. While just providing internet access isn’t exactly grounds for liability, it can still lead to high defense costs and reputational damage.

Defamation

Defamation is something that’s really hard to prove, but it’s something that can happen often. If your company provides their own type of social media and it ends up getting used for harassment, then the company can be held liable for it. Don’t let your company get caught up in a negligent supervision case. Think about employee liability here. Keep track of your employees at all times, especially with company-provided message boards and apps.

Violation of Trademark

Companies need to always keep track of their social media pages in order to ensure that employees are not supporting other corporations publicly on their pages. If this little thing is left unmonitored, then you may have a litigation case for infringement.

Revealing Proprietary Client Information

Don’t let employees reveal proprietary information. If it happens, then your company can be held liable in a lawsuit. Information seen at work is considered confidential, meaning it’s not meant to share with the rest of the world. Public leaks can lead to seriously dangerous repercussions. Personal information should never be exposed.

Endorsement and Testimonials in Advertising

Be careful of who advertises your company. If an employee posts positive reviews disclosing things about the company but doesn’t disclose their place within the company, then there could be serious issues. You could be exposed to some pretty crazy FTC violations.

Damage to Reputation

If you have employees who post inappropriate photos or videos publicly during their off time at work, you could be held liable for those things. Long story short, it damages the reputation of the company, and leaves you with an employee liability claim. This could impact future dealings within your company.

About World Wide Specialty Programs

For the last 50 years, World Wide Specialty Programs has dedicated itself to providing the optimal products and solutions for the staffing industry. As the only insurance firm to be an ASA commercial liability partner, we are committed to that partnership and committed to using our knowledge of the industry to provide staffing firms with the best possible coverage. For more information about Staffing Professional Liability Insurance or any other coverage, we have available to protect your staffing business, give us a call at (800) 245-9653 to speak with one of our representatives.